Chapter 26: Request

After Li Si opened the door, he saw a group of people standing at the main gate, including two yamen runners. It seemed that after he had been knocked unconscious and taken away yesterday, these neighbours had gone to find the authorities.

At this, warmth rose in Li Si’s heart.

“Scholar Li, it’s truly wonderful that you’re all right.” A young man dressed like a hunter quickly walked up to Li Si, so excited that words could hardly describe it.

Li Si knew this person. He was a hunter in the county, named Cao Qing. He was the one who had given him a woodcutting knife to chop up the corpse last time, and he had a son named Cao Meng who was still receiving basic lessons from Li Si.

The others, Yu San, Uncle Zhou, and the rest, also gathered around, asking Li Si with concern whether he had suffered any grievance in the Zhang Residence.

Li Si forced himself to rally his spirits and smiled as he politely answered them one by one. Then he slipped away and walked in front of the two yamen runners.

“Two elder yamen runner brothers, I have already resolved the strange matter in the Zhang family. Please go in and take a look.” Li Si cupped his hands toward the two yamen runners and spoke to them.

When the two yamen runners heard him say this, surprise and disbelief appeared in their eyes. Then they apologized to Li Si and quickly walked into the Zhang Residence.

Seeing this, the others also became curious and followed the two yamen runners inside.

Seeing everyone enter, Li Si sat down on the threshold, preparing to lean against the doorframe and rest for a while.

However, he had not rested for long when panicked cries came from inside the Zhang Residence.

A group of people ran out of the Zhang Residence and kept vomiting nearby. The looks they gave Li Si also became extremely complicated.

Finally, the two yamen runners walked out of the Zhang Residence with pale faces. They came before Li Si and said hesitantly, “Scholar Li, this matter is of great importance. We hope you will not wander around outside in the near future. Later, we may need to ask you to assist with some testimony.”

“Mm, all right.” Li Si nodded, then prepared to get up and leave.

“Teacher Li.” Suddenly, just as he turned to leave, someone called out to him. It was the hunter Cao Qing.

Li Si turned his head and looked toward Cao Qing. Only then did he discover that among these people who were vomiting, Cao Qing was the only one who could still be considered normal in expression. His mental fortitude seemed extraordinary.

“Brother Cao, did you stop me for something?” Li Si looked at Cao Qing and said with a smile.

“I have an presumptuous request. I hope you can agree to it.” A troubled expression appeared on Cao Qing’s face.

Seeing him like this, Li Si truly wanted to roll his eyes at him. If he knew it was a presumptuous request, then he should not ask.

But in his heart, he also knew what kind of person Cao Qing was, so he did not reply that way. Instead, he continued forcing himself to stay alert and said, “Go ahead and say it.”

“Teacher Li, I need to make a long journey soon. Could I let my son stay with you temporarily for a period of time?” As Cao Qing spoke, an embarrassed expression appeared on his face, and he continued, “I will give you money.”

As he spoke, he prepared to take money from his clothes.

“Send your son over. There is no need for money,” Li Si said with a smile. In any case, he felt rather empty living alone, and he also quite liked Cao Meng.

“How could that do?” Cao Qing became somewhat anxious and was about to stuff the money in his hand into Li Si’s hand.

Seeing Cao Qing’s manner, Li Si also felt that he had been somewhat rash. If he did not accept it, Cao Qing probably would not feel at ease.

Thinking this, he smiled and accepted it casually.

He had just looked at it. It was not much, but for a hunter, it was also not little.

Just at this moment, a hunter nearby saw Cao Qing and Li Si talking and also walked over, asking Cao Qing, “Brother Qing, have you found that tiger?”

When Cao Qing heard this, he smiled and nodded.

At this moment, Li Si also remembered from the original owner’s memories that Cao Qing was an extremely skilled hunter in the county, and he had some martial skill. In the past, he had often hunted fierce beasts outside the city, such as wild boars and leopards.

However, once, when he went up the mountain to hunt, he encountered a fierce tiger more than five metres long (~16.4 ft). He killed one tiger cub that the tiger had brought with it and also shot and injured the mother tiger’s front leg. But he had not expected that beast to be extremely cunning. Surrounded by many hunters, it had forcibly escaped.

Cao Qing had not taken this matter too seriously, but who would have known that this tiger had developed intelligence and remembered the grudge. It ambushed near his home, and while Cao Qing was out hunting, it secretly slipped into his house and bit his elderly father, elderly mother, and wife to death, then ate them.

When Cao Qing returned, only his son was left, hiding in a cupboard and trembling.

This incident left him so grief-stricken he wished he were dead, and made him resolve never to hunt again in the future, but to properly raise his son into adulthood. At the same time, he harboured an extremely deep hatred for that tiger and had been searching for its tracks all along.

And this time, he had clearly found traces of that tiger, and planned to go take revenge.

“Survive.” Li Si walked in front of Cao Qing, patted his shoulder, and said seriously.

Sometimes, between men, there was no need to say too much. A few words were enough. He was not a scholar of this world, speaking in refined, literary phrases about everything.

After Li Si left, more and more people gathered at the Zhang Residence, but this place no longer had anything to do with him.

After all, judging from the corpses, they had already been dead for a long time, while Li Si had only come to the Zhang Residence yesterday, so naturally, no one would suspect that he had killed them.

At this moment, Li Si was buying vegetables at the market entrance. This was his third time buying vegetables.

The first time, he had encountered the fox demon’s mourning cry. He had chopped off the Walking Corpse’s head and used all the money to buy firewood.

The second time, he had managed to buy vegetables, but someone had blocked his doorway and knocked him unconscious with a blow.

He felt somewhat unwilling to believe in such evil, so he came once again to the market entrance to buy vegetables. First, he bought 0.25 kg (~0.55 lb) of pork belly from the Yu family butcher shop. Then he bought some sharp peppers, greens, spring onions, ginger, garlic, and the like, and also brought back some osmanthus cake.

It was about the same as what he had bought last time, except this time, the vegetable-selling auntie was kind-hearted and gave him some wood ear mushrooms she had picked today.

After returning home, nothing happened. Li Si began preparing these vegetables. First, he sliced the pork belly thinly, then marinated it with coarse salt and soy sauce.

Next, he washed the spring onions, ginger, garlic, small greens, and green peppers, then sliced the spring onions, ginger, and garlic into shreds or smashed them into paste, and cut the green peppers into small pieces.

After all the preparations were complete, Li Si poured lard into the wok. After it boiled, he put in the marinated pork and the chopped green peppers to fry them briefly, then poured the lard from the wok into an earthen jar.

After pouring it out, Li Si put the spring onions, ginger, and garlic into the wok and stir-fried them. Afterward, he put in the wood ear mushrooms, the fried green peppers, and the pork belly together, then added some seasonings and dried chilli peppers. Just like that, a plate of stir-fried pork with green peppers was made.

Li Si then put in the garlic paste, stir-fried it until fragrant, and added the prepared greens. Before long, the second dish, garlic greens, was also made.

After that, he took out the rice that had already been steamed on another stove and carried it together with the two dishes into the main hall.

To be honest, the two dishes he had cooked were very good, especially the stir-fried pork with green peppers. The green of the peppers, the golden colour of the meat, the red of the dried chilli peppers, and the black of the wood ear mushrooms mixed together, making people feel extremely comfortable and whetting their appetite.

After Li Si sat at the table, he began eating. When the thin slices of meat entered his mouth, a trace of satisfaction appeared in his eyes.

He discovered that what he liked most after coming to this world was cooking. The main reason was that the food in this world was not very good, and only when he ate meals with the flavours of his previous life could he clearly know that he had lived once more.